16.01.2018, Moscow.
The removal of Ukrainian weapons from Crimea began back in March 2014, but it had to stop because of the Kiev’s “anti-terrorist operation”, Sergey Lavrov said on January 15 answering a question by the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency at his press conference, a correspondent of the Rossa Primavera Information Agency reports.
Lavrov emphasized that weapons began to be removed from Crimea as early as in March, “however, after your leaders branded as terrorists those who never attacked them, we stopped delivering these weapons, because we understood that they could be used against people who expressly rejected the coup d’etat set up by those who anathematized the Russian language…by Yarosh, who said that Russians would never glorify Bandera; and therefore, they must be expelled from Crimea. I am sure that Crimeans simply had no choice.”
Lavrov also explained Russia’s position on the status of the Donetsk and the Lugansk People’s Republics of Donbass to the Ukrainian journalist. “The subject is certain areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In terms of putting an end to hostilities and withdrawing weapons, direct consultations are to be held. To date, the Ukrainian leadership has not assumed such obligations, and it keeps coming up with various configurations alleging that they do not talk to anyone from the LDPR government,” the minister said.
The first Minsk protocol was signed on September 5, 2014 in Minsk; it provisioned, in particular, a ceasefire on the territories of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions of Ukraine.
In the period of the Kiev authorities’ actions against the people of Donbass, shelling has often targeted houses, schools, kindergartens, and infrastructure facilities. According to UNICEF (the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), over 740 schools have been destroyed or damaged in the areas affected by the conflict in the eastern Ukraine.
The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements is a document approved at the Minks summit of February 11-12, 2015 by the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia in the “Normandy Four” format and signed by the contact group of the representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions, in order to de-escalate the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
